Now, let us reverse time for a moment from the point that the last chapter ended on and return to the home of our very interesting 'koukousei kaitou', Kuroba Kaito, some minutes previously to all this.

The boy began juggling the jewel absent-mindedly as he sat down on his bed, watching the light reflect through the facets. This was one hell of a find, he thought to himself as he glanced down at the floor. The entire carpet was painted a faint beautiful ruby red, not to mention the fact that the socks strewn on the floor, once faded, now looked like they had been re-dyed.

It wasn't what he had expected. 'Emerald' sent him images of small green rocks that were relatively heavy and remarkably unreflective for something so expensive. This thing... it was light, it was the size of his fist and it was bright red - as far as he'd learned, emeralds couldn't be red; the only possible colour range for emeralds was yellow to blue – and the light was being refracted everywhere in a much more intense form that it had entered. Not to mention the fact that in the other world it had glowed brightly under the moonlight. And that it had special powers of teleportation.

If you removed the mentions of size, weight and took the 'of teleportation' away from the end of 'special powers', you could almost call it Pandora: it was red, it glowed under moonlight and it had special powers. And if the black-coats ever caught wind of this, they definitely would. It matched a lot of their criteria minus the form of the inner part of a doublet.

Though, the question still remained as to the colour. Why call it an Emerald if it was red?

"You're not a Kaosu Emerald," he finally decided. "You're a Kaosu Nofekh. Or a Kaosu Yasepheh. Not a Kaosu Emerald."

Smirking to himself at the rather obscure joke he'd just made, he stood up. Thanks to that creature in the other world, he'd discovered how it worked. It seemed odd, though. One would think you'd need to put a stone under weird conditions to get it to exert magical powers, but this one you apparently needed to shout at to get it working. Huh.

Kaito wasn't a detective, much as it interested him, but he did know quite a bit. It helped when he was planning heists to know the nuances of language, especially in the note-writing and research stages. However, his understanding wasn't as complete as he might hope it was. The result of having to do so much of it had resulted in the boy's acquisition of several English dictionaries and thesauruses, and it was these that grabbed from his shelf, flicking through them.

'Kaosu', as a few would have you know, was the Japanese transliteration of the original Greek pronunciation of the word 'chaos', which back then referred to a large emptiness, or space. The English word 'space', going along from that, meant both a general term glancing over everything outside of the Earth's atmosphere and the placement of objects in relation to one another. 'Chaos' in the English language also meant disorder and an irregular, unpredictable action that was remarkably sensitive to regular changes in environment. 'Control' meant influence, authority and dictation over something, not an easy concept to explain, but not hard for people to understand. Add the two together, and you got the implication of controlling something random or, more accurately, controlling space.

'Chaos Control', as would be stated by Hakuba some miles and minutes away, meant the ability to teleport.

Kaito snickered. Now that he had that part worked out, maybe he should drop in on tantei-san?

He walked across the hall and into the entertainment suite, which was better equipped now than it had been when he started. It used to be his mother and father's bedroom, but after the accident, his mother had moved into the guest room and moved everything electronic and not to do with the kitchen into this room. However, it was his father, not to mention her husband, and there were still some of his things in the room. For example, the dresser that had once sat behind the bed was there, the bottom drawer full of his socks. And also, there still hung on the wall a large, five-foot-long portrait of the man on stage, holding a conspicuous white hat with blue ribbon (he wondered now he'd never considered his father to be the KID after seeing the guy) from which birds flew out. And it was this that he was headed to.

He pushed lightly on the painting. It responded by rotating on a central axis, flipping inwards and allowing him to step through into the Batcave-like place he called Kaitou KID's true home.

His thieving uniform, the white tuxedo, was hung up, washed without trace of blood on the back. So his mother knew about the room, not to mention the night job. He groaned. Now a parent was involved... this was getting dangerous. Not many superheroes had parents involved without that parent - or those parents - dying.

Kaito sighed, taking off his pyjamas and taking the suit off the coat-hanger, before diving behind the red convertible that his dad had somehow stuffed into the room. The upstairs didn't have much space to change and he did want to keep his decency intact until he actually got the thing on. His mother may have been out, but who else now knew about this room?

He buttoned up the shirt, and paused.

A hat. Hadn't he left a top hat in the other world?

Yes, and he'd put the tracker on it, which meant... He put on his gloves, then snatched the earring out of the drawer and held it to his ear, dialling the code number that had been carved on the base of the gadget. He listened.

"...seventy kilometres south, ten kilometres west..."

Now that was interesting, considering that wasn't where the anomaly was. Maybe it wasn't working? The signal might have been messed up because of the anomaly. Something like that. Shrugging, he took an extra, more battered hat from the coat-hook next to the door and put it on. He slid the monocle back over his eye, and stared down the red Emerald.

"Take me to tantei-san," he grinned, taking it in his hand. The face of the British detective flashed through his mind. "Kaosu Control!"

The light suddenly bleached the room white. He stretched out his arms, trying to discern what was happening, but his eyes were forced shut as the world threatened to blind him if he didn't.

Suddenly, the floor removed itself from under his feet, and then returned.

"Chaos Control... means 'teleport'."

Kaito looked up to see Hakuba lying stretched on a sofa in front of him, one hand on a computer mouse and the other gripping a piece of toast.

He smiled. "Exactly what I was thinking," he said, crossing his arms.

Hakuba whipped around in panic. "What on..." His eyes ran up and down the white-clothed character that had suddenly appeared in his room, and finally landed on the red gem resting between his fingers. He relaxed visibly, although the tension was still there, just less noticeable.

"I see you worked it out faster than I did," he said in English. "Of course, the fact that you have the Emerald helps a lot more than this video."

"I wouldn't know. How long did it take you to work this out, tantei-san?" the thief asked, slipping into the language smoothly.

Hakuba crossed his arms. "The term is 'detective' in English," he muttered. "Now, would you explain to me what happened there or do I have to bring out the shotgun?"

"'Detective' isn't nearly as personal-sounding as 'tantei-san'," Kaito replied playfully, before putting his hands up. "And oh, dear. I don't recall part of the fox's plan to be stealing firearms from the farmers. I believe it was something to do with burrowing and stealing chickens."

"Would you like to lose your tail as well?" the ainoko rambled. "Now, please, tell me. What happened in the other world?"

Kaito hesitated, and brought his arms down slowly, then walked towards the light-haired teenager. He took him by the shoulders and, amused at the other's hitched breath, pushed him lightly into the seat. Taking his seat next to him, he slipped off a glove and took a piece of toast, eying it suspiciously. When he discovered the butter on it, he placed it back down. Hakuba blinked.

"Lactose intolerance?" he smirked. "Would this be able to identify you in any way?"

"I'm Japanese; that will identify me better. Lactose intolerance only serves to hide me deeper in the crowd." Kaito winked. "Now, then, you wish to know what happened?"

The detective nodded. "Just tell me already. What did the aliens look like? Other than that strange man; I've gotten enough of a look at him for one lifetime already."

"And I also." Kaito adjusted his position. "The aliens were... unique, to put it in the best way. They were bipedal, had brightly-coloured fur, and had an unusually large skull, to put it in the most literal."

Hakuba nodded. "So, the strange man wasn't one of them?"

"He matched their body shape, not so much the size of the head, feet or hands. He described himself as a human, saying there were colonies spread across their world." He scratched the skin near the facial clasp of the monocle. "The aliens were fast, as well, and very powerful considering their skeletal structure. When I broke out of the glass cell, for example, one was fighting off a giant mecha using its feet and the top of its head. It was like an American cartoon."

"Judging from what I heard of them, it sounds like you did walk into an American cartoon," Hakuba agreed. "Two of the accents were mid-American while one of them was a very bad Australian. All three were male and with a very decent command of the English language. I have no clue what Doctor Eggman's accent was, though."

"He sounded vaguely like you," Kaito remarked lightly. The blond shot him an offended look. "I meant accent-wise."

"That wasn't a British accent, that was clearly American," Hakuba argued.

"Are you kidding? He was hardly as nasally as an American."

"Let's just keep going," the other cut in, waving his arms around in an attempt to stifle the phantom thief. "What actually happened to you, then?" Kaito's blank expression seemed to grow dark, and he tensed up. For a second Hakuba must have thought he'd made a grave mistake,

There was silence for a few minutes, before he swallowed. "That man had possession of a device I recognised from a run-in with a rather insane professor some years ago," he began. "The device was involved in programming an android identical in appearance and personality to my civilian persona, by downloading the data from my brain. I... I had to put it down after it grew feral. I always thought the machine would stay abandoned, but that Eggman travelled through the anomaly and found the machine. I believe the new upgrades were meant to make it remove data rather than simply download it. It did not work; as you can see, I'm clearly not a zombie right now.

"Thankfully, one of the aliens saved my life by causing a distraction that damaged my bonds. I was able to retrieve my prize, which seems to have been used as a power source for the device – that was the point where I was rudely interrupted by some of Eggman's minions. That was where the Australian one came in and snatched it out of my hand. Luckily, I was faster with my gun and with the distracter's advice I was able to escape."

"So that was that voice shouting to use Chaos Control," the British boy murmured thoughtfully. "He knew exactly what that jewel did."

Kaito crossed his arms. "That would be because he was one of the aliens on the original footage, now that I recall," he said. "He very clearly talked about the Kaosu Emeralds on the tape when he was discussing it over with his cute little friend. I would be able to recognise that voice from a mile away."

Hakuba leaned back in his seat, taking a bit of the now cold toast. Kaito watched him with internal glee. Obviously the man was intent to try and figure out what the creature had meant.

Well, so was Kaito. It hadn't been coincidence, certainly, since everybody else had been trying to get him away from the damn thing; that was what he could figure out. That creature had wanted him – no, needed him – to take the Emerald away. But why was a mystery. It could have been anyone who had sent that probe, even the black-coats, and the wrong people learning of the Emeralds could have decided to take advantage of their new knowledge. To just trust the first otherworlder it (no, he; it was male, after all) came into contact with didn't sound right.

Then again, considering the little guy's actions earlier, it was obvious that he liked to take mindless risks to achieve his ends. Namely, he had blown a hole into a wall and then fought a giant robot, all while commanding the strange kid in white to get out of there by taking something that was clearly very important to their world.

Hakuba eventually sighed and stood up. "You had to take it. He considered Eggman to be to a larger threat than you," he reasoned. "Maybe he needed you to get it out of that world, so that Eggman couldn't reach it."

"Hmm... He did seem a little stupid. Maybe I should tell tantei-kun about this?"

"Hmm?"

Kaito grinned. "Kaosu Control."

MKMKMKMKMK

Conan was no longer struggling, and he had settled into the classroom easily after that little heart-to-heart in the toilets. Ms Kobayashi had been impressed with his improvements – the kanji was written in the correct order and the answers more or less perfect, though the standard lower than his regular work. He was still awkward, though, and that had worried her distinctly.

It was break-time, however, and no longer time for her to be intruding, so she simply left for the staff room while the Shounen Tantei decided to talk to him.

"What was that about this morning, Conan-kun?" asked Ayumi pleadingly.

Conan knotted his fingers together. "It wasn't anything much," he replied quietly, head bowed. He clutched the pencil-case still. Attempts to remove it by Ms Kobayashi had been somewhat unsuccessful. Every few seconds or so there was a small shiver. "I've just been a little restless lately. That's all."

Mitsuhiko put a finger to his bottom lip in a parody of an adult's thinking pose. "Come to think of it, you were sleeping in class the day before yesterday, weren't you? Maybe you're still feeling a bit sick; there has been a cold bug going around, after all."

Both Genta and Ayumi wore a worried face, though Ayumi's was more intense than Genta's. "If you're still sick, you should have stayed at home!" the little girl cried. "So you can get some rest and come to school again when you're feeling better!"

"Calm down, A-Ayumi-chan. It's not like I'm dying," Conan said, stuttering slightly, before picking his backpack up off the floor. "I'm completely fine." The others watched with wide eyes as he dug inside and pulled out a large book, written in English text, with a large title on the cover reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes. He opened it to the bookmarked page and trailed his finger underneath the letters.

Ai was hardly amused, though the grin on her face would tell you otherwise. "Are you falling asleep because you're concentrating too much on that old book, Edogawa-kun?" she remarked, arms crossed.

"I'm just rereading it." He grimaced. "It's not like reading a book will kill me, is it, Haibara?"

"You should stop using those words in front of children, you're scaring them," the not-so-little girl replied. "If you're not dying, then it's hardly a fact you need to underline, especially with Ayumi-chan here." Kudou-kun, something's terribly wrong with you today. Tell me what it is. And do so when they're gone. That was what she was really saying.

"Speak for yourself," he mumbled, burying his head in his book again. Ai sighed, leaving her seat and pulling the others away.

When they had reached the back of the room, she drew them into a group huddle, and peered out. The boy was still reading his book and was still clutching his pencil-case like a real small child would carry a blanket. He was hunched over in his seat, and his fingers trembled slightly every time he turned the page. A few other students gathered around him, wondering how he could be reading the foreign language at all when it looked like it was just made up of the buzz words that so many advertising campaigns used; he tugged the book a little closer to himself with a shy demeanour. As if he was so shy about these things normally.

"Alright, keep your voices low," she said, nodding over to the boy. "How was he this morning? I don't usually talk to him unless we're out or sitting next to each other."

"Conan-kun kept bowing his head and sitting alone," Genta said. "He didn't look like he wanted any disturbing, so we just mostly kept away from him."

Ai raised an eyebrow. "Mostly?"

They all looked at each other, before Mitsuhiko spoke. "Ayumi-chan thought it would be best if she approached him first."

"I thought he wouldn't be as scared of me as he would of Mitsuhiko-kun and Genta-kun," she explained. "But when I got near him he shuffled away. He looked like a mouse running from a cat!"

The last part nearly reached Ayumi's naturally loud speaking volume. Ai shushed her quickly, but Conan had already glanced over his shoulder and looked back. Despite the whole gesture only taking a few seconds, she had clearly seen a naturally curious expression on his face... tinged with the paleness of fear.

"Could it be he's actually scared of us?" the freckled boy behind her asked quietly.

She paused, and then shook her head. "I don't believe that for a second. Edogawa-kun's... a lot braver than that. He's always been that way. If anything, he's more likely going to be scared for us rather than of us."

It was unlikely that the Organisation had discovered him, although they certainly knew of one member who could identify him as Kudou Shin'ichi: Vermouth, or Chris Vineyard, or Sharon Vineyard, whatever you wanted to call her. However, her only spat seemed to be with Jodie Starling, an FBI agent they were well acquainted with and had recently helped out in a bank robbery. Then there was a friend of Ran's that he'd told her about named Hondou Eisuke, who was also currently involved in the FBI, CIA and Black Organisation's joint drama, but he was away in America and had no contact with them except through his older sister who didn't know. Surely his parents weren't as stupid, either; only when they were with people with no connection to Ran, Kogorou or the local police was he referred to as their son, and then Conan's cover story was that they had him while holidaying in Los Angeles. Anybody who knew how long they had been in Los Angeles would actually realise this not to be possible, even if he did look even younger than he should do.

She needed to know more.

A/N: Obscure references are my specialty, especially biblical ones. But poor Conan, poor Kaito and poor Hakuba...